The IB Middle Years Programme

Life in the 21st century places many changing demands on students making the transition through adolescence. They are at a crucial period of personal, social, physical and intellectual development, of uncertainty and of questioning. The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Programme is designed to help them find a sense of belonging in the ever-changing and increasingly interrelated world around them and to foster a positive attitude to learning.

What will you learn in Technology?

When you study MYP Technology you will learn how to use tools. You will then use your creativity to solve problems using those tools. You will be making things that make life easier for people.

Solving Problems

The whole point of Technology is to solve problems. Once you have learnt how the tools work and what resources are available, you will be given a

problem to solve using the tools and resources.

Here are some examples of problems:

There is a school play and people need to be told about it
Young people are trying smoking and getting addicted.
It is hard foryoung people to find fun things to do inViet Nam.

A solution to a Problem

Problems are solved by using your creativity to find a good solution.

Let’s look at Problem #2: “Young people are trying smoking and getting addicted”. How can we solve this? We could:

Make a film explaining the dangers of smoking.
Make a presentation on the dangers of smoking.
Write and record a no-smoking song.
Make a poster explaining the dangers of smoking.
Make a website on how smoking kills.

There are lots of possible solutions. We must choose one that we think will work the best and that we can make with the resources we have.

Inquiry and problem solving are at the heart of MYP technology. During the five year course at SIS, students are expected to solve problems using technology.
The course follows the design cycle as the model of thinking and the strategy to help students investigate problems and design, plan, create, and evaluate the products/solutions that they generate.

The Design Cycle

Examples of suitable and sophisticated M5 products/solutions that allow students to achieve the highest achievement level of the assessment criteria are:

a website
a video, animation or podcast
a database or model
an interactive application, a game or story book

Assessment Criteria:

Students are assessed against the following six criteria:

Investigate - Students are expected to identify the problem, develop a design brief and formulate a design specification. Students are expected to acknowledge the sources of information and document these appropriately.
Design - Students are expected to generate several feasible designs that meet the design specification and to evaluate these against the design specification. They are then expected to select one design, justify their choice and evaluate this in detail against the design specification.
Plan - Students are expected to construct a plan to create their chosen product/solution that has a series of logical steps, and that makes effective use of resources and time.
Create - Students are expected to document, with a series of photographs or a video and a dated record, the process of making their product/solution, including when and how they use tools, materials and techniques. They are expected to follow their plan, to evaluate the plan and to justify any changes they make to the plan while they are creating the product/solution.
Evaluate - Students are expected to evaluate the product/solution against the design specification in an objective manner based on testing, and to evaluate its impact on life, society and/or the environment. They are expected to explain how the product/solution could be improved as a result of these evaluations. Students are expected to evaluate their own performance at each satge of the design cycle and to suggest ways in which their performance could be improved.
Attitudes in technology - This criterion focuses on personal engagement and attitude.